CORONAVIRUS: Thursday 8/13 roundup

Tonight’s virus-crisis toplines:

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary dashboard, the cumulative totals:

*17,204 people have tested positive, up 225 from yesterday

*685 people have died, up 5 from yesterday

*2,073 people have been hospitalized, up 5 from yesterday

*307,132 people have been tested, down 38,191 from yesterday* (see next item)

One week ago, those totals were 16,138/663/2,006/318,926.

TEST-RESULTS-TOTAL DROP EXPLAINED: From the county:

On Aug. 13, the state Department of Health provided an updated negative test total which is part of our daily outbreak summary. In this update, the negative test total for King County was reduced by 38,191. The current number of tests reflects the number of unique individuals tested. We hope to update our counts to also include the number of tests performed by the week of 8/17. Please note that this issue primarily affects negative lab results over the last several weeks, but does not impact the total number of positive tests.

ANOTHER LOCAL DEATH: 98106, which is partly in West Seattle, just recorded its 4th death.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page,.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 20.8 million cases worldwide, and the U.S. is a fourth of that, at 5.2 million. See the nation-by-nation breakout here.

GOVERNOR’S BRIEFING: No big news but he was joined by health officials today. As summarized in a state digest, “Dr. Kathy Lofy from DOH and Dr. Francis Riedo of Evergreen Health in Kirkland (provided) an overview of some of the emerging findings about the longer-term impacts of COVID-19. Dr. Riedo said the sustained effects of COVID-19, including fatigue or loss of taste and smell, make it very different from a common flu when people often feel fully recovered in a relatively short amount of time. Researchers are still learning about the lasting effects.” You can watch the briefing video here.

WEST SEATTLE TESTING TOMORROW: Reminder – the weekly South Seattle College (6000 16th SW; WSB sponsor) COVID-19 testing now starts and ends earlier than before – 7 am to 1 pm Fridays.

NEED FOOD? Don’t hesitate to accept help if you need it. 2-5 pm Friday, free boxes of food are available at Food Lifeline (815 S. 96th).

GOT PHOTOS/TIPS? 206-293-6302, text or voice, or westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!

11 Replies to "CORONAVIRUS: Thursday 8/13 roundup"

  • Bandana August 13, 2020 (10:12 pm)

    225 new cases? I wonder what’s causing this spike.

    • Delridge Resident August 14, 2020 (6:45 am)

      Maybe it is their new method of counting? One of the roundup posts this week indicated that they weren’t capturing the true number of positive tests for people tested multiple times. For example, if you tested negative in March, but positive in June, you were only recorded once as negative. I hope this is the case, and not 225 additional people… but either way 200+ new cases is concerning.

  • psps August 14, 2020 (12:45 am)

    Haven’t you heard? We’re perpetually in the denial stage. Open the schools! Open the restaurants for dine-in, even with a bar!  Open the gyms with mask requirements “except during heavy exertion!!” Open everything! When the inevitable infection is detected, after it’s already been
    spread to others, close down for a few days “for cleaning” and then open back up and do
    it … again!

  • Seriously? August 14, 2020 (6:00 am)

    Seriously??

  • anonyme August 14, 2020 (7:18 am)

    Well, my MAGA-mad neighbor had a yard party last night until 3 am.  Guessing stuff like this might be contributing, as it’s happening all over.  In civilized countries, states, and cities, those without masks are fined and distancing guidelines and prohibitions on gatherings enforced.   In Seattle, nothing is enforced – so there ya go.  It’s fine, really; the human population needs a drastic reduction in numbers, and covidiots will make sure that happens.  It’s just too bad for the gene pool that they will kill innocent others rather than paying the price for their ignorance themselves.

  • Mj August 14, 2020 (10:09 am)

    anonyme – my understanding of nature is that these events result in strengthening the gene pool, thus I’m unclear as to your statement regarding the gene pool?

    • heartless August 14, 2020 (11:49 am)

      In Anonyme’s point she is just saying it’d be nice if Covid-19 were contained to those idiots currently welcoming it with open mouths.  Because they are mean and/or dumb, and getting sick is kinda what they deserve at this point.  But of course it’s not that simple, as it spreads quite easily to people who are indeed being adults and taking precautions–those very people we really want to keep around.

      Hope this helps you understand.  

      ps
      Why do you think pandemics strengthen the gene pool?  I guess I’m asking what is your understanding of nature that leads you to that conclusion?

      • The King August 14, 2020 (3:30 pm)

        The undercurrent of anger in their comment is disturbing really. To wish death on a certain group of people, regardless of their political affiliation, is unjustifiable. 

  • Friend O'Dinghus August 14, 2020 (12:25 pm)

    Like with Aids, people’s perceptions of things change once they personally know someone who has died. It’s sad but true.  In this particular disease, this means that by the time folks really come to terms with reality, the epidemic is raging out of control. Once out of control, it’s virtually impossible to contain once again. I think we need to implement the litmus paper saliva type testing idea. Cheap, self-administered, production can be ramped up quickly, delivered directly to homes and checked daily. Drawback…many false positives. Good news though…virtually no false negatives.  If it says you are negative, then you are really negative. This means if one tests positive…wait a few hours and do a second saliva test…still positive…repeat. Eventually go have a confirmatory test with physician or health department. I definitely think it’s an idea worth trying immediately in a few states. This Fall is going to be very bad I think. Perfect storm conditions in every aspect…even down to politics; both in terms of impacting the pandemic and the pandemic affecting our politics.  We must control the pandemic now, as every single scenario only gets worse from here on out…even the optimistic ones.

    • heartless August 14, 2020 (1:35 pm)

      Good points all around.  I’m especially a fan of the saliva tests you mention.  And yes, false positives we’re okay with so long as the false negatives are tamped down.  Well said.

  • Gwen August 14, 2020 (4:48 pm)

    This might be  dumb question. But the initial summary posted by King County yesterday listed the new positives as 225. Now, one day later, they list the positives for 8/13 as 116 on the test result chart at the bottom of the page. I’ve noticed that this kind of shift happens often. Does someone know what accounts for this dramatic change?

Sorry, comment time is over.